Parasitic Voices and Prosthetic Selves: Detecting the Post-Lyrical Subject in the Works of Contemporary Digital Literature

• Název práce v češtině: Parazitické hlasy a protetická já: Detekce post-lyrického subjektu v dílech současné digitální literatury
• Název v anglickém jazyce: Parasitic Voices and Prosthetic Selves: Detecting the Post-Lyrical Subject in the Works of Contemporary Digital Literature
• Klíčová slova: post-lyrický subjekt|digitální literatura|algoritmizace|psaní|algoritmy|digitální poetika|parazitické hlasy|protetická já|data|kybertext|neurální sítě|generování textu|subjektivita|subjektifikovaná informace|strojové učení|umělá inteligence
• Klíčová slova anglicky: post-lyrical subject|digital literature|algorithmization|writing|digital poetics|parasitic voices|prosthetic selves|data|cybertext|neural networks|text generation|subjectivity|subjectified information|machine learning|artificial intelligence
• Akademický rok vypsání: 2020/2021
• Typ práce: diplomová práce
• Jazyk práce: angličtina
• Ústav: Ústav anglofonních literatur a kultur (21-UALK)
• Vedoucí / školitel: Mgr. David Vichnar, Ph.D.
• Řešitel: skrytý - zadáno a potvrzeno stud. odd.
• Datum přihlášení: 22.02.2021
• Datum zadání: 22.02.2021
• Schválení administrátorem: zatím neschvalováno
• Datum potvrzení stud. oddělením: 04.03.2021
• Datum a čas obhajoby: 09.09.2021 00:00
• Datum odevzdání elektronické podoby: 16.08.2021
• Datum proběhlé obhajoby: 09.09.2021
• Odevzdaná/finalizovaná: odevzdaná studentem a finalizovaná
• Oponenti: Louis Armand, Ph.D.

Zásady pro vypracování

This diploma thesis explores subjectivity in the domain of so-called digital writing, that is, in texts of largely experimental nature generated by computer algorithms (or with their assistance). In order to do so, the thesis briefly covers the history of digital writing, its mediatic specificities, poetics as well as various theoretical and philosophical conceptualisations. Most importantly, it undertakes an analysis of a post-lyrical subject, a concept devised by Janez Strehovec, that is common to all cases of generative writing under focus. For its comparative analysis, the thesis deals with the recent works from contemporary creators who approach algorithmic textuality from variegated perspectives, incl. Nick Montfort, Allison Parish, Stephanie Strickland, Li Zilles, Gwern Branwen, among others. Texts generated by programs are conceived of as expressing a new, parasitic and prosthetic, genus of cyber-textual subjectivity that defies the traditional lyric and expands its pool “by other means,” as Marjorie Perloff would say. Such a tendency results in conceptually as well as formally complex literary corpus "infected" by--to further exploit the suggested metaphor--parasitic voices and prosthetic selves. Unlike in generic lyric, the post-lyrical subject surpasses the confines of poetry as genre; it is grounded in collectivity, multivocality, mutability, un-creativity and serves not only as a representation of the multifaceted--not to say cyborgian à la N. Katherine Hayles and Donna J. Haraway--modern psyche with respect to the form and message, but also, on the other hand, the means of production and chain of command behind its textual architecture. In the world of accelerated automation and augmentation, user interfaces, neural networks, machine learning and ubiquitous AI, this thesis aims to facilitate the contextualization of subjectivity in the realm of hybrid and generated texts and perhaps also to investigate subjectivity through the gaze of the mechanical Other.

Seznam odborné literatury

Primární literatura:
Branwen, Gwern. Gwern.Net,https://www.gwern.net/GPT-3.
Darby, Larson. Irritant, 2013.
Montfort, Nick. Truelist, 2018.
Parrish, Allison. Articulations, 2018.
Piringer, Jörg. Data Poetry, 2020.
Strickland, Stephanie. Ringing the Changes, 2019.
Zilles, Li. Machine Unlearning, 2018.
"Electronic Literature Collection". Collection.Eliterature.Org,https://collection.eliterature.org/.
"Github: Where The World Builds Software". Github.Com,https://github.com/.

Sekundární literatura:
Aarseth, Espen J. Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature, 1997.
"ALAMO / l'Atelier de Littérature Assistée par la Mathématique et les Ordinateurs". Alamo.Free.Fr,http://www.alamo.free.fr/pmwiki.php
Armand, Louis. The Organ Grinder's Monkey: Culture After the Avant-garde, 2013.
Barthes, Roland. Œuvres complètes, 1993.
Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation, 1981.
Benveniste, Émile. Problèmes de linguistique générale, 1963.
Benjamin, Walter. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, 1935.
Blasing, Mutlu Konuk. Lyric Poetry: The Pain and Pleasure of Words, 2007.
Bogost, Ian. Alien Phenomenology, Or, What It's Like to be a Thing, 2012.
Bohal, Vít, and Breitling, Dustin. Allegorithms, 2017.
Cramer, Florian. Words Made Flesh: Code, Culture, Imagination, 2005.
Cushman, Stephan, et al. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, 2012.
Debord, Guy. The Society of Spectacle, 1967.
Deleuze, Gilles, and Guattari, Félix. Capitalisme et schizophrénie 2 : Mille plateaux, 1981.
Dworkin, Craig Douglas, and Goldsmith, Kenneth. Against Expression: Anthology of Conceptual Writing, 2011.
Eskelinen, Markku. Cyberpoetics: The Critical Landscape of New Media Literary Theory, 2012.
Emerson, Lori. Reading Writing Interfaces: From the Digital to the Bookbound, 2014.
Foucault, Michel. Dits et écrits, (1954-1988), tome I, 1954-1975.
Funkhouser, Chris. Prehistoric Digital Poetry: An Archeology of Forms, 1959-1995, 2007.
Funkhouser, Chris. New Directions in Digital Poetry, 2012.
Glasier, Loss Pequeño, Digital Poetics: The Making of E-Poetries, 2002.
Goldsmith, Kenneth. Uncreative Writing: Managing Language in the Digital Age, 2011.
Goodfellow, Ian, Bengio, Yoshua, and Cornville, Aaron. Deep Learning, 2015.
Hartman, Charles O. Virtual Muse: Experiments in Computer Poetry, 1996.
Hayles, N. Katherine. Writing Machines, 2002.
Hayles, N. Katherine. How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics, 1999.
Heibach, Christine, et al. P0Es1S: The Aesthetics of Digital Poetry, 2004.
Jackson, Virginia Walker, and Princ, Yopie. The Lyric Theory Reader: A Critical Anthology, 2014.
Kac, Eduardo. Media Poetry: An International Anthology, 2007.
Kurzweil, Ray. How to Create Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed, 2012.
Link, David. Poesiemaschinen, Maschinenpoesie: zur Frühgeschichte computerisierter Texterzeugung und generativer Systeme, 2007.
Lyotard, Jean-François. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, 1979.
Manovich, Lev. The Language of New Media, 2001.
McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extension Of Man, 1964.
Miller, Arthur I. The Artist in the Machine: The World of AI-Powered Creativity, 2019.
Mitchell, Melanie. Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans, 2019.
Montfort, Nick. Exploratory Programming for the Arts and Humanities, 2016.
Montfort, Nick, and Wardrip-Fruin, Noah. The New Media Reader, 2003.
Morgenstern, Aliyah. Un JE en construction: genèse de de l'autodésignation chez un jeune enfant, 2006.
Negarestani, Reza. Intelligence and Spirit, 2018.
Oulipo, La Bibliothèque oulipienne volume I-VIII, 1987-2011.
Perloff, Marjorie. Unoriginal Genius: Poetry by Other Means in the New Century, 2010.
Plato. Phaedrus.
Plato. Meno and Other Dialogues.
Schreibman, Susan, Siemens, Ray, and Unsworth, John. A Companion to Digital Literary Studies, 2008.
Schwartz, Oskar. "Competing Visions for AI: Turing, Licklider and Generative Literature," Digital Culture & Society, 2018.
Solt, Mary Ellen. Concrete Poetry: A Worldview, 1968.
Stefans, Brian Kim, Fashionable Noise: On Digital Poetics, 2003.
Strehovec, Janez. "Text as Loop/ On the Digital Poetry," 2003.
Strehovec, Janez. Text as Ride: Electronic Literature and New Media Art (Computing Literature), 2016.
Wark, MacKenzie. A Hacker Manifesto, 2004.
Williams, Emmett. An Anthology of Concrete Poetry, 1967.
Zahavi, Dan. Subjectivity and Selfhood: Investigating the First-person Perspective, 2005.